Ethiopia to participate in peacekeeping force, says minister

Ethiopia reiterated on Thursday its readiness to send peacekeepers to neighbouring war-ravaged Somalia, saying the troops would be part of a wider peacekeeping force.

"We have decided to participate in the peacekeeping force of [the] IGAD [Intergovernmental Authority on Development] in Somalia," Bereket Simon, information minister, told IRIN. "We will contribute in every aspect to the force."

The Nairobi-based interim Somali government, led by Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, had requested for the African Union (AU) to send in a peacekeeping force to help restore law and order in the Horn of Africa country and protect the new government.

The peacekeepers would help disarm thousands of armed militias that roam the country carrying more than two million small arms, according to estimates by aid workers. Yusuf also wanted them to train 30,000 Somali soldiers within a year.

The AU, in turn, mandated the IGAD, which includes Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda, to provide initial troops ahead of a larger-scale AU force.

Uganda has also committed to sending troops, while Kenya has promised observers. Djibouti President, Ismail Omar Guelleh, was quoted as saying on Al-Jazeera TV on Wednesday that his country had been requested to be part of the peacekeeping force that would participate "in the restoration of peace in Somalia".

Currently an AU-led mission comprising military experts from IGAD-member states and the Arab League is in Somalia assessing the situation before recommending the mandate and size of the force and where it should go.

Before the mission arrived, however, thousands of protesters in Mogadishu took to the streets to say they did not want foreign peacekeepers from neighbouring countries to be deployed in Somalia.

The transitional Somali government was established in October at the conclusion of lengthy talks in Kenya, sponsored by the IGAD. It has, however, remained in Kenya since then, citing the precarious security situation in Mogadishu.

Under pressure from the Kenyan and western governments, the interim government announced recently that it would start relocating to Mogadishu from 21 February. Prime Minister Muhammed Ali Gedi is, however, expected to leave for Mogadishu before that date.

Matt Bryden, a Horn of Africa analyst for the International Crisis Group, told IRIN on Thursday: "The TFG [transitional federal government] needs to start moving decisively to Mogadishu and to make it clear that the deployment of troops from neighbouring states is off the table."

Somalia ceased to have a functional national government after warlords overthrew Mohamed Siyad Barre in 1991, reducing the nation to clan-based fiefdoms. The northern area of Somaliland declared itself independent, while the northeastern region of Puntland, led by Yusuf at the time, declared itself as an autonomous region.

Somalia lost a 1977 war with Ethiopia over control of the southeastern Ogaden region, largely inhabited by ethnic Somalis. The two countries share a 1,600-km border.